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Comments Fuel More Outrage at Vatican

ROME—The Vatican sought Wednesday to avert a backlash over assertions by its No. 2 official this week that homosexuality in the priesthood was partly to blame for cases of sexual abuse by priests.

During a visit to Chile on Monday, the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, linked sexual abuse by priests to homosexuality in an attempt to deflect questions over whether such abuse stemmed from the priesthood's...